Paramount Television Animation
|Row 7 title = Parent |Row 7 info = ( ) }} Paramount Television Animation is the television animation production arm of . It serves as the revival/reboot of Paramount Cartoon Studios. It was founded on January 7, 1981. Background In late 1979, Paramount Pictures decided to revive its animation studio for television. Before it came around, Paramount Cartoon Studios first started off with the Fleischer brothers. was built on Max Fleischer's novelty film series, (1919-1927). The "novelty" was based largely on the results of the "Rotoscope", invented by Fleischer to produce realistic animation. The first "Out of the Inkwell" films were produced through the , and featured Fleischer's first character, "The Clown," which became known as Ko-Ko the Clown in 1924. In 1921, The Bray Studio ran afoul with legal issues, having contracted for more films than it could deliver to its distributor, The Goldwyn Company. The Fleischer Brothers left and began their own studio with Dave as Director and Production Supervisor, and Max as Producer. In 1924, Veteran Animator, Dick Huemer came to The Inkwell Studio and redesigned "The Clown" for more efficient animation. Huemer's new design and experience as an Animator moved them away from their dependency on The Rotoscope for fluid animation. In addition to defining the clown, Huemer established the Fleischer style with its distinctive thick and thin ink lines. In addition, Huemer created Ko-Ko's companion, Fitz the Dog, who would evolve into Bimbo in 1930. Throughout the 1920s, Fleischer was one of the leading producers of animation with clever moments and numerous innovations including the "Rotograph", an early "Aerial Image" photographic process for compositing animation with live action backgrounds. Other innovations included Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes and sing-along shorts (featuring the famous "bouncing ball"), a precursor to Karaoke. During the 1930s and early 1940s, Fleischer begun working on Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman. After Fleischer Studios dissolved into Famous Studios after founder Fleischer's dismayal, the Popeye and Superman series continued on with another series like Noveltoons, Little Lulu, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Baby Huey, Herman and Katnip, Buzzy the Crow, Little Audrey, Beetle Bailey, Snuffy Smith, Krazy Kat and Screen Songs. By 1967, the Paramount animation studio was closed down after the Fractured Fable, Mouse Trek was completed for a release on December. History Beginnings: 1979-81 In late 1979, Culhane came in over to Paramount and told the executives about taking their animation studio to an upgrade to television animation, and the executives at Paramount eventually agreed to this. Animators, such as Dave Tendlar, Martin Taras, Lou Zukor, and John Gentilella helped revive the old Paramount Cartoon Studios in New York. They moved the headquarters over to California. Producing new animated TV shows: 1981-83 Paramount Television Animation was officially founded on January 7, 1981, succeeding Paramount Cartoon Studios. A month later, it was that time where Paramount decided to revive its franchise with the start of using their earlier series, Noveltoons. It also featured the return of both Mae Questel, Margie Hines, Arnold Stang and Sid Raymond, along with Jack Mercer (who continued to do voices for television until his death in 1984). In addition, they've made a deal with Hanna-Barbera on the series along with Harvey Comics and NTA/Republic Pictures. The new series was a success as it retained the original Warner Bros./Tex Avery-style humor of the original shorts. Their first show, The Noveltoons Show was animated in-house domestically at Hanna-Barbera Productions. Paramount tend to have a liking to assign Ed Love to do song-and-dance scenes on the show, because his animation style is more fluid than the other animators at the time. Collaborating with other studios: 1983-97 Their first collaboration with Ruby-Spears Enterprises was Betty Boop and Friends. The series was a successful attempt to revive the Betty Boop franchise and the first show to exclusively have overseas animation. The first season was mostly animated at Toei Animation in Japan. During production of the series, the PTA studio opened many of its animation facilities as an attempt to avoid overseas animation subcontractors. Toei left after the first season and the animation quality suddenly began to improve. As the third and fourth seasons of the show came around, the writing began to take its downfall. Bimbo's street-smart personality was reduced to a stupid nag, who always keeps telling Betty and Koko to "do something", instead of getting it done himself. This caused a controversy among fans, where they didn't like this new personality Bimbo had gained. Jeffrey Scott, one of the writers during the first two seasons explained why Bimbo is acting like this is because of low budgets and rushed production on the writing, since the studio was more focused on the animation than the writing of the episodes. After the show was cancelled, the Betty Boop franchise was put on ice. But despite that, the fans will always remember the first two seasons of the series, before the last two series destroyed it in general. During 1983, the animators were running low on ideas for new television shows. Until Tendlar said, "Hey, I've got an idea! Why don't we make a cartoon about adventures in Lilliput and Blefascu based off the 1939 feature film? It'll be terrific!". Still under construction... Another show, The New Animated Antics was another collab with Hanna-Barbera and the final one to be associated with and animated in-house at that studio. Like the original shorts, it featured the Three Spies (Sneak, Snoop and Snitch) in the first segment and Twinkletoes in the third segment, while the second segment in-between consists of one-shot characters. Both Gulliver's Travels and Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost came in after and were the new animated cartoon series of 1985. The Gulliver's Travels cartoon show was a continuation of the 1939 feature film and contained all 22-minute stories, while the Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost cartoon was an adaptation of stories from the original issues of Harvey Comics and had two stories run on 22 minutes (11 minutes for one story each). After having a good long run, they both ended in 1992. Meanwhile, the Paramount animators worked on their first independent production, The Knights of Crystalland. It was a new series with more darker and edgier tones in a Saturday morning cartoon. It debuted on September 5, 1987 and is one of the first Paramount animated shows to air in syndication. During production on the shows, the studio planned on a new 94-minute documentary special. Marshall Flaum was the special's director and writer. It contained all of the characters from the Fleischer era of Paramount animation. Still under construction... The studio worked on reviving the Modern Madcaps with Cosgrove Hall Films and newcomer Rough Draft Studios as the overseas unit. The All-New Modern Madcaps was the first show to have a mix of American/Canadian/British voice actors and actresses. Adelaide Productions and Amblin Television signed up with the creators of Earthworm Jim to produce a spin-off series starring Peter Puppy, in the vain of Incredible Hulk. The result was Peter Puppy: The Incredible Pup. Reviving the Terrytoons franchise: 1997-2002 The Terrytoons Show was the answer to reviving the Terrytoons franchise. The show made its debut on both Nickelodeon and CBS on September 1997, despite the fact that the show wasn't intended to be an original Nicktoon like all the others which included: Ren and Stimpy, Rugrats, Doug, AAAAH, Real Monsters!, CatDog and The Angry Beavers. During that time, Bagdasarian was assigned by PTA to reboot Alvin and the Chipmunks to television after a bad experience with Tom Ruegger on his interpretation of the series at Warner Bros. Popeye got its own sitcom in 1999 on Cartoon Network. Paramount Television Animation today: 2002-present After The Terrytoons Show ran its course, Paramount Television Animation started producing more original shows independently without any collaboration. Earthworm Jim was rebooted, along with Universal Cartoon Studios to air on Nickelodeon on April 2005. Universal left in favor of Craig McCracken for the last two seasons. Krazy Kat got its reboot in 2008, while Earthworm Jim shown its last episodes on the air. A Betty Boop-related show entitled, Max Fleischer's Betty Boop, came out around June 28, 2013 on Fox. It was aimed for a PG-13 Rated audience, as it returns the original settings and surrealism of the early Fleischer cartoons. The show was a hit since its earlier show with Ruby-Spears, Betty Boop and Friends. Animation companies and individuals associated or collaborated with Paramount Television Animation *DiC Entertainment (1985-1998) *Atkinson Film-Arts (1985-1986) *Hinton Animation Studios (1987-1990) *Lacewood Productions (1990-1997) *Gracie Films (1987-present) *Universal Cartoon Studios (1991-present) *Adelaide Productions (1996-2002) *Marvel Productions (1984-1992) *King Features Entertainment *Fleischer Studios *NTA/Republic Pictures *The Harvey Entertainment Company *Amblin Entertainment *Mainframe Entertainment *Ruby-Spears Enterprises *Film Roman *Hanna-Barbera Productions (1981-1990) *Nickelodeon Animation Studios (1990-present) *Klasky Csupo (1993-2004; 2003-2008) *United Plankton Pictures (1999-present) *DreamWorks Television Animation (2008-2016) *Bill Melendez Productions *Mercury Filmworks *Cosgrove Hall Films *Cartoon Network Studios (2023-present) Foreign-based animation facilities *Paramount Television Animation (Canada) *Paramount Television Animation (Australia) *Paramount Television Animation (France) *Paramount Television Animation (Japan) *Paramount Television Animation (UK) Filmography Television shows *''The Noveltoons Show'' (1981-83, co-produced with Hanna-Barbera Productions, NTA/Republic Pictures and The Harvey Entertainment Company) *''Betty Boop and Friends'' (1983-86, co-produced with Ruby-Spears Enterprises, NTA/Republic Pictures, King Features Entertainment and Fleischer Studios) *''The New Animated Antics'' (1984-85, co-produced with Hanna-Barbera Productions, NTA/Republic Pictures and Fleischer Studios) *''Gulliver's Travels'' (1985-1992, co-produced with Marvel Productions, NTA/Republic Pictures and Fleischer Studios) *''Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost'' (1985-1992, co-produced with DiC Entertainment and Atkinson Film-Arts in season 1, Hinton Animation Studios for the remainder of the series and The Harvey Entertainment Company) *''The Knights of Crystalland'' (1987-1992, first independent production) *'' '' (1987-1988, co-produced with Bakshi-Hyde Ventures) *'' '' (1991-2004, animation produced by Anivision and Wang Film Productions, co-produced with Klasky Csupo and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *'' Stimpy'' (1991-1995; 2003; 2019-present, co-produced with Spümcø (1991-1993; 2003), Nickelodeon Animation Studios (1993-1995; 2019-present), Dark Slime Productions (2019-present)) *''The All-New Modern Madcaps'' (1992-1995, co-produced with Cosgrove Hall Films, animation overseas at Rough Draft Korea) *''The Misadventures of Cookie Crook and Chip the Dog'' (1992-1994) *'' '' (1993-1997; 2011, animation produced by Film Roman (revival only), co-produced with Judgemental Films and MTV Animation) *'' '' (1994-1997, co-produced with Klasky Csupo and Reno & Osborn Productions) *'' '' (1994-1997, co-produced with Klasky Csupo and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *'' '' (1996-2004, co-produced with Snee-Oosh, Inc. and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''Peter Puppy: The Incredible Pup'' (1997, co-produced with Adelaide Productions and Amblin Television, Interplay Entertainment and Playmates) *''The Terrytoons Show'' (1997-2002, animation produced by Film Roman) *'' '' (1997-present, co-produced with Celluloid Studios (1997), Braniff Productions (1997-2006), Parker-Stone Productions (2006-2007), South Park Digital Studios (2007-present), Comedy Central Productions and Warner Bros. Animation (1997-2003)) *'' '' (1998-2005, co-produced with Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''Alvin and the Chipmunks'' (1998-2005, co-produced with Bagdasarian Productions) *'' '' (1998-2004, co-produced with Klasky Csupo and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''Terry Friends'' (1998-2003, animation produced by Saerom Animation) *''Popeye the Sailor'' (1999-2002, 2005-2008, animation produced by Film Roman (first season only), co-produced with King Features Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation) *''Super Mae the Maned Wolf'' (1999-present) *'' '' (1999-present, co-produced with United Plankton Pictures and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''Velocity: The Dark Human Slayer'' (1999-2003; 2018, animation produced at Rough Draft Korea (season 1-4) and Digital eMation (season 5), co-produced with Dark Slime Productions (season 5 only) and Nickelodeon Animation Studios, CGI effects produced at PTA's Japanese subsidiary (season 5 only)) *'' '' (2001-2017, co-produced with Billionfold Inc. (2008-2017), Frederator Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *'' '' (2001-2006, co-produced with Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''Fraggle Rock: The Animated Series'' (2002-2005) *'' '' (2002-2006, co-produced with O Entertainment, DNA Productions and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''The Cheetah Thieves'' (2003-present) *'' '' (2003-2008, co-produced with Klasky Csupo and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *'' '' (2004-2007, co-produced with Double Hemm and Rough Draft Studios) *'' '' (2005-2008, animation produced by JM Animation, MOI Animation, PTA's Japanese subsidiary and DR Movie, co-produced with Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''Earthworm Jim'' (2005-2008, first two seasons produced by Universal Cartoon Studios, last two seasons produced independently onward. Co-produced with Interplay Entertainment and Playmates) *''Gatopardos the Cheetah'' (2007-2010, co-produced with Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *'' '' (2007-2010, co-produced with Omation Animation Studio and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse'' (2008-present, co-produced with King Features Entertainment) *'' '' (2008-2015, co-produced with DreamWorks Television Animation and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''Mittens the Cat'' (2010-2016, co-produced with Netflix Originals and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *'' '' (2010-2013, co-produced with Omation Animation Studio and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *'' '' (2011-2016, co-produced with DreamWorks Television Animation and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *'' '' (2012-2014, animation produced by Ginormous Madman, Studio Mir, PTA's Japanese subsidiary and Studio Pierrot, co-produced with Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''The Link Show'' (2012-present, co-produced with Nintendo and Shaft, Inc.) *'' '' (2012-2017, co-produced with Lowbar Productions, Mirage Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *'' '' (2013-2014, co-produced with DreamWorks Television Animation and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''Max Fleischer's Betty Boop'' (2013-present, co-produced with Mercury Filmworks, King Features Entertainment and Fleischer Studios) *'' '' (2013-2016, co-produced with Nickelodeon Animation Studios and Forest City Rockers) *'' '' (2014-2016, co-produced with Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''Herman and Katnip's Adventures'' (2014-present, co-produced with Harvey Entertainment and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''The Cartoon Adventures of Jeremy Jaguar'' (2015-present) *''The New Adventures of Popeye the Sailor'' (2015-present, co-produced with King Features Syndicate, Paramount Television Animation and Warner Bros. Animation) *''Pupz (2015-present, co-produced with Cartoon Network Studios and Rough Draft Studios) *Speedy Blue Dog'' (2015-present, co-produced with Sony Cartoon Studios, Frederator Studios and Frederator Interactive) *'' '' (2016-present, co-produced with Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''Awesome Antics (2016-present, co-produced with Nickelodeon Animation Studios) (''Wolf vs. Sheep segments only) *''Flytrap: Savior of All'' (2017-present, co-produced with Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''The Police Force Squad'' (2017-present, co-produced with Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''The Return of Mittens (2017-2018, co-produced with Netflix Originals and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *Occhi Rossi'' (2017-present, co-produced with Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''Deirdre the Cat'' (2017-present, co-produced with Lionsgate Toon Studios) *'' '' (2018-present, co-produced with Mirage Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''Kaput and Zosky'' (2018-present; co-produced with Futurikon and Hong Ying Animation) *''Nicktoonimals'' (2018-present, co-produced with Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''The Adventures of Jakob Grimes'' (2020-present; co-produced with Man of Action Studios, Tim Burton Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studio) *''Beetle Bailey'' (2020-present, co-produced with King Features Syndicate ) *''Awesome Family'' (2022-present, co-produced with Netflix Originals and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''Alvin and the Chipmunks'' (2023-present, co-produced with Bagdasarian Productions and Cartoon Network Studios) Television specials *''A Heckle and Jeckle Christmas'' (1985, animation co-produced by Ruby-Spears Enterprises, animation outsourced to Bill Melendez Productions) *''Mighty Mouse's Snow Adventure'' (1995, animation produced by Film Roman) *''Popeye for President'' (1992, animation produced by Marvel Productions, co-produced with King Features Entertainment) *'' '' (2003, co-produced with Frederator Incorporated and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *'' '' (2004, co-produced with Frederator Incorporated and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *'' '' (2004-2006, co-produced with Frederator Incorporated, O Entertainment, DNA Productions and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *'' '' (2005, co-produced with Frederator Incorporated and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''The Chipmunks and Chipettes in Spain'' (2006, co-produced with Bagdasarian Productions) *'' '' (2008, co-produced with Billionfold Inc., Frederator Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *'' '' (2009, co-produced with Billionfold Inc., Frederator Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) *''Speedy Blue Dog's Christmas Adventure'' (2016, co-produced with Sony Cartoon Studios, Frederator Studios and Frederator Interactive) *'' '' (2017, co-produced with Snee-Oosh, Inc. and Nickelodeon Animation Studio) *'' '' (2018, co-produced with Joe Murray Productions and Nickelodeon Animation Studios) Direct-to-video films *''Mr. Bug Goes To Town II'' (2002, co-produced with Tama Productions and Cosgrove Hall Productions) *'' '' (2003, co-produced with Universal Cartoon Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studio) *''Gulliver's Travels 2: It's a Hap-Hap-Happy Adventure'' (2005, co-produced with Dong Woo Animation) *'' '' (2010, co-produced with Double Hemm and Six Point Harness) *''Mittens the Cat's Legendary Movie (2015, co-produced with Netflix Originals and Studio Mir) *Alvin and the Chipmunks: The City of New York vs. Alvin Seville'' (2023, co-produced with Bagdasarian Productions) Television pilots * Reception During the 1980s, the studio was criticized for its Hanna-Barbera influence in writing and animation during its humble beginnings for television. This changed in the early 90s, when the studio gradually moved away from limited animation and Saturday Morning-level formulaic writing in favor of emulating both Disney and Warner Bros. (which was the main highlight of the studio). Between 2004 and 2006 (for television shows), the studio had sadly returned to limited animation and changed their usual Golden Age of Animation art style they had donned in the 90's into Craig McCracken's art style, which was critcized by modern critics such as the Nostalgia Critic and MrEnter. Tropes See /Tropes Gallery Paramount Television Animation (1981).png|First logo from January 7, 1981 to December 11, 1986. Paramount Television Animation (1986).png|Second logo from December 12, 1986 to August 30, 1989. Paramount Television Animation (1989).png|Third logo from September 22, 1989 to January 13, 1995. Paramount Television Animation (1996).png|Fourth logo from February 17, 1995 to February 15, 2002. Paramount Television Animation (2002).png|Fifth logo from March 1, 2002 to mid-2005. Paramount Television Animation (Late 2005).png|Sixth logo from late-2005 to December 21, 2011. Category:Companies Category:American companies